Building strong communities is a way to fight fascists and their lackeys, and the damage they seek to create

[usonian]

The Guardian, archived: https://archive.ph/0ngOI#selection-1353.0-1353.96

George Monbiot
I'm skipping the Doctor Strangelove gloom and doom.
The solution below is positive and empowering,
Tue 18 Feb 2025

Start with this principle: don’t face your fears alone. Make friends, meet your neighbours, set up support networks, help those who are struggling. Since the dawn of humankind, those with robust social networks have been more resilient than those without.

Discuss what we confront, explore the means by which we might respond. Through neighbourhood networks, start building a deliberative, participatory democracy, to resolve at least some of the issues that can be fixed at the local level. If you can, secure local resources for the community (in England this will be made easier with the forthcoming community right to buy, like Scotland’s).

From democratised neighbourhoods, we might seek to develop a new politics, along the lines proposed by Murray Bookchin, in which decisions are passed upwards, not downwards, with the aim of creating a political system not only more democratic than those we currently suffer, but which also permits more diversity, redundancy and modularity.

The relevance of this?
I was up a 14 foot stepladder yesterday at age 76, repairing some storm damage to the home.
This is a very isolated community, and I haven't seen my nearest neighbors in months.
Fortunately, I'm good at this, through practice and focus.

We need to help each other and build the opposite of our "pay or die" capitalist culture. My grandmother used to say "Paga o muori". She understood.

I'll be posting ways and means to build strong communities of people committed to real democracy, proving Nazi jingoism to be a lie.

In The Way Forward and/or Activist Headquarters.

[c-rational]

1. Good article and post/advice usonian. Thanks.

[kozar]

2. Last time, i was on a ladder

I was 45, and I ended up in the hospital

[usonian]

3. OUCH.

I personally know two people who broke hips or backs.

I have one more phase of this repair job. I'll do my very best to make it a safe one.

There's more chance here of tripping on a gopher hole or slipping on the trillions of tiny oak leaves.